OpenVPN Download Slow on School Network

David B

Greetings OpenVPN Community,

At my school, I use OpenVPN to access my home network when necessary. When I am not on my VPN, my upload and download speeds both cap at about 30Mbps on average. When I am OpenVPN however, things get a little strange. My average download speed drops to about 5Mbps, and my average upload speed stays at about 20Mbps. What's going on here? Normally, I would think that my school is throttling OpenVPN traffic, but the fact the only my download speeds are slow while my upload speeds remain decent, I am wondering if perhaps something else is causing the problem. My OpenVPN server operates on UDP 1194 from a Raspberry Pi. I have heard some suggest that the Raspberry Pi is the problem, but I do not believe it is because I have been able to use the VPN on other networks, including my own for testing purposes, without any performance issues whatsoever.

TinCanTech

Your download speed is throttled by the maximum upload speed of your VPN server internet connection.

David B

I know that, but the network on which the server is running is capable of achieving 50Mbps, so that couldn't be the problem.

TinCanTech

The better the details you post the easier it is to help ..

David B

What additional information should I provide? Whatever it is, I can provide it, but I just don't know what information you need. I'm a novice when it comes to administering OpenVPN servers, so I'm afraid I don't quite know what information is traditionally provided when requesting assistance.

TinCanTech

Please see the Forum rules (top of this page)

Also, I suggest you do a speedtest.net report of your openvpn server side internet connection.
And finally, ask your school if they do in fact throttle you ..

David B

I have asked my school if they throttle, and they have said that they do not.

Here is my "server.conf" file.

port 1194

proto udp

dev tun

ca /etc/openvpn/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/keys/server.crt
key /etc/openvpn/keys/server.key # This file should be kept secret

dh /etc/openvpn/keys/dh2048.pem

server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0

ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt

push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"

client-to-client

keepalive 10 120

comp-lzo

user nobody
group nogroup

persist-key
persist-tun

status openvpn-status.log

log /var/log/openvpn.log

verb 2

mute 10

crl-verify /etc/openvpn/keys/crl.pem

TinCanTech

TinCanTech wroteI suggest you do a speedtest.net report of your openvpn server side internet connection

I almost guarantee your server side internet connection is 50mps down and 5mps up ..

David B

As soon as I am on my home network, I will run a speed test and post the results here. Besides, I have used the VPN on other networks and had no problem before, so I know that my upload speed is not that low.

David B

I'm on my home network now, and here's the result. As you can see this round of testing actually had uploads higher than downloads, although this does not always happen.

TinCanTech

David B wroteAs you can see this round of testing actually had uploads higher than downloads, although this does not always happen.

You should check that your ISP does not do the throttling ..

David B

I checked with them before even bothering to set up the server. They do not throttle.

TinCanTech

David B wroteI have heard some suggest that the Raspberry Pi is the problem, but I do not believe it is because I have been able to use the VPN on other networks, including my own for testing purposes, without any performance issues whatsoever.

Therefore the problem lies with the network .. not openvpn.

David B

Yes, I know that. I never thought the issue had to do with OpenVPN itself. I was hoping to get some advice on what I could try to change about my OpenVPN setup to solve the problem.